Thinking about cutting my driver down...

[Bullitt5339]

Now that I've learned how easy it is to regrip a club, the thought of cutting my driver down is even more in my mind.

The club as it currently stands:  Srixon Z-Star, set at D4 swingweight.  Adjustable weights, and I have a few extra.  Miyazaki Dromos 59R shaft.  The club is currently 46" long as well, stock grip.

My thoughts, plus needing some math help....

Being 5'6", I know that I need a shorter driver.  The Regular flex seems to be in between flexes for em.  My miss lately has been high and off the toe.  So I thought that I would start off at 44".

1st question:  Where should I trim the 2" off?  Would tipping it an ince and then butt cutting it an inch be a horrible plan?  Advantaged of tipping it or just cutting the 2" off the butt?

2nd question:  Swingweight.  Obviously, I'm going to lose quite a bit of weight from the club.  The grip that's going on weighs 49 grams.

Help me with the math.  I am taking 2" off a shaft  which equates to about a __________ change in swingweight.  I can get the swingweight up to D7 in standard form using the 11 and 7g weights. D4 with the 11 and 3 or  7 and 7, and D1 with the 7 and 3g weights in it.  In order to get the swingweight back to a reasonable amount, say D3, _____________ weight must be added into the head.

I have 4 weights for my driver:  11, 7, 7, and 3....  Just need to see if I need to find any extras, which may be tough for that driver.

Any basics you can give me would rock, I really need to get something better fit for my diminutive size, and a 46" driver isn't doing it.

[fRzzy]

I'm 5'7" and using an 45" driver, I'm thinking about cutting it 1" off, too. Great thread.

[shooter]

LOL You might need a scientist to figure that out.

I'm also 5'7 and I'm using the Burner 2.0 w stock Stiff shaft (46.5")  without any problems.

I too at times hit high of the toe but that's mostly from casting the club. I once cut my 10.5* R9 to 43.5" it didn't help any sort of miss that occurs during a round, but i sure as heck gave up around 25 yards in total distance once you factor in the roll-out. Considering that at my home course there are four 440 yard par 4's that can ruin the best of days, i can not afford to give up any distance, let alone 25 yards.

I'm not implying you will lose that much distance, but some loss of SS will occur if you start cutting it down, if you can find the center of the face with the shorter shaft you might only see a marginal loss in distance...That's my 2 cents

[Bullitt5339]

I had another driver cut down to 44" and hit it great after I had the swingweight brought back up, which is why I'm asking this question.  It's not that hard of math, I've seen people do it before, but doing my research, I keep getting conflicting numbers on approximately how much weight I would need to add.  I really just want to make sure I have the proper weights, lead tape drives me crazy.

Before I had the swingweight adjusted, I had the same problems as you saw.  Very short drives that were out of control.  Putting some weight into the head worked, and I actually hit it further than I did with a 46" driver.

[fRzzy]

If you cut it off 2", swing weight will be decreased by 12 points. You will need to add 24 grams to the head to bring the swing weight backup. And that is a lot.

Note that the shaft will be be come stiffer if you shorten it, but not so much if you trim it from the butt. But, with the required weight need to be add to the head, it can be come too soft, so tipping 1" from each end is what I will do if I were you. You will need to look out for the shaft strength, too. I can't imagine the shaft broken down with a heavier head but be careful.

Note that this isn't from my own experience, it's from my notes from various places over the Internet. I'm planning to butt trim my driver's shaft 1" and add 12-16grams to the head to bring the weight back up (more than now) while (hopefully) soften the shaft a little bit. It will be done next week when my new driver arrive, just in case something go wrong.

[fRzzy]

Well, please ignore my above post, it doesn't completely wrong but I found out today that static weight is very important, too. So shortening the shaft too much and then tried to bring the swing weight back up can make the club become too heavy to swing.

[Bullitt5339]

I cut it down today, but it was 45.5" to begin with when I actually measured it, the online source was wrong.  So I only had to cut it down 1.5".  I added 9 grams of weight to the head and will take it in tomorrow and have the swingweight checked, but as of now, it feels pretty good.